General
Source: Africa Review
Boys and girls should not sit in the same classroom, radical Islamist group Al-Shabaab has ordered.
All lectures must also stop at ten minutes to noon, while teachers must inculcate in their students the importance of Jihad (holy war), said a senior official of the group which controls most of central and southern Somalia.
“Those who disobey the order will be punished,” said Sheikh Mohamed Abu Abdalla, the Wali (governor) of Lower Shabelle in a statement, without elaborating the nature of the punishment.
According to reports, Sheikh Abu Abdalla issued the edict after touring several schools in the area.
In some of the territory controlled by the group that poses the biggest challenge to Somalia's transitional federal government, the use of English as a medium of instruction has been banned.
School bells, which according to the group sound like church bells, have also been banned.
The militants of the Al-Shabaab (youth in Arabic) group often lure the students to join the local Jihad against pro-government forces and peacekeepers serving under the African Union Mission in Somalia, Amisom.
